“Unfortunately, based on past experience, we also urge American Muslims, and those who may be perceived to be Muslim, to take appropriate precautions to protect themselves, their families and their religious institutions from possible backlash.”

This statement is designed to create and establish among Muslims the feeling they are victims within America. It also is meant to provide the basis for understanding why some lunatic who is Muslim might have reason to “snap.” This is not much different than the view, still held by a large minority of Americans (Reverend Wright anyone?) that 9/11 was simply America’s chickens coming home to roost.

This warning by CAIR is an irritant and does not belong in this press release. Hate crimes in America are virtually non-existent, relative to its size. The last year for which the FBI has detailed data is 2007. There were a total of 1477 hate crimes against religion, 1010 of which were “Anti-Jewish.” “Anti-Catholic” and Anti-Protestantâ€Â crimes totaled 129, “Anti-Muslim” crimes totaled 133, and all other religions combined totaled 241. No deaths were attributed to the victim’s religion. There were 16,000 murders in America in 2008. Bias crimes exist, but they are a sideshow. To include them in a statement condemning the murders at Fort Hood is political propaganda.

It would also be reassuring if CAIR’s statement were more specific in its condemnation. They state that

“no political or religious ideology could ever justify or excuse such wanton and indiscriminate violence.”

That’s not true. Not only can political and religious ideologies justify such violence, they do it all the time. Plus, why the generic “political or religious” passive sentence construction? Why not simply â€œIslam itself condemns such violenceâ€? CAIR instead says the

“American Muslim community condemns this cowardly attack.”

[Emphasis added.]

In today’s world, there are no accidents of language by sophisticated and well-funded organizations of any kind.

Yes, paranoia can strike deep. But carefully constructed statements as obvious in what they exclude as what they include, do not help matters either.Â CAIR, and other such groups, needs to do better than this.